


breathe me in (like the air tonight)

by amaanogawa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Love, Fluff, High School, KuroDai Week, KuroDai Week 2017, M/M, basically a teen chick flick, chemnerd!kuroo and footballcaptain!daichi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 00:59:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10843179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaanogawa/pseuds/amaanogawa
Summary: "Kuroo learns that he’s never wanted to kiss someone as badly as he does now, when Sawamura’s face is bathed in moonlight on the streets of residential Tokyo."Kurodai week 2k17:Sports Swap AU/ Same Highschool AU.





	breathe me in (like the air tonight)

In the complex hierarchy that is the high school pecking order, Kuroo is solidly middle class.

His generally good natured personality, laid back attitude and easy-on-the-eyes good looks, if he does say so himself, places him at a decent ranking. It also helps that his best friend is one outgoing and all too friendly national level volleyball team captain, Bokuto Koutarou.  
  
Being founder of their high school chemistry club and all around homebody, however, doesn’t do much to score him points.  
  
Not that Kuroo cares about these silly details anyway. He’s quite content with the days of his youth; he enjoys what he learns, gets good grades, has a great group of friends, and after school he gets to mess around with chemistry experiments to his leisure. He’s won multiple ‘youth innovation in science’ contests and now, in his third and final year of high school, he’s been offered scholarships by multiple universities for him to choose from.

Life is pretty good.  
  
He’s sitting at his desk in homeroom, chin propped in hand, staring blankly out the window. The red-yellow-orange hues of the leaves falling one by one to the ground are reminders of how time is passing. It’s his last year here at this high school, with these friends by his side, surrounded by the familiar smell of the science lab that he has spent most of his high school days in. Kuroo can’t help but feel a little bittersweet, even though he still has months to go before graduation.  
  
He doesn’t regret the person he chose to become. Even if he didn’t get to live as exciting a student life as some others did.  
  
At that moment, the classroom door rolls open and it’s suddenly entirely too loud for this early in the morning. Sliding his eyes towards the door, Kuroo’s lips can’t help but twitch into a half-smile.

Speaking of high school hierarchy.

If Kuroo was middle class, someone such as Sawamura Daichi was no doubt a member of the pristine upper echelons.

Sawamura Daichi, captain and star receiver of the football team. Dedicated student, responsible citizen, and all around good guy. He’s flanked by Sugawara Koushi, quarterback and vice-captain of the football team, and Azumane Asahi, linebacker. As they walk into the classroom, the very atmosphere changes. In the back of his mind, Kuroo briefly remembers hearing about a series of very important games that would determine whether or not they would proceed to the Christmas Bowl. Considering the rowdiness of the crowd quickly forming around the newly entered trio, it’s clear that their game last night went well.

The fleeting thought of how different his high school days would have been if he had led a life more similar to Sawamura’s floats through Kuroo’s mind. It may have been more exciting, certainly. Kuroo doesn’t really realize he’s staring until Sawamura’s eyes flicker over to lock with his own, all the way from across the classroom. Taken off guard, he flinches as Sawamura gives him a smile and a little nod before returning to his conversation with another student.

Kuroo wonders what it’d feel like to stand on the same field as Sawamura; somehow, he imagines that Sawamura’s all-too-reliable presence is always a source of palpable relief for his teammates, just as his image would allow one to believe.

  
\---  
  
Swearing under his breath, Kuroo gingerly rolls open the door to the school infirmary.  
  
“Excuse me,” he says with a wince, “I’ve got a burn…”  
  
“Oh, Kuroo. Come on in.”  
  
The voice that responds is, in fact, not that of the usual nurse’s. Kuroo looks up, raises an eyebrow at Sawamura sitting at the nurse’s desk, a textbook and notebooks spread out in front of him.  
  
“Hey, Sawamura. Where’s the nurse?”  
  
“At some faculty conference; I’m on infirmary duty for the week. Come sit here.”  
  
Kuroo does as he’s told, plopping himself onto a wooden stool with a grimace. Sawamura holds out a hand, brows raised slightly in question. “May I?”  
  
Kuroo shrugs, places his injured hand in Sawamura’s palm. “Be my guest.”  
  
Sawamura’s hands are warm and gentle, turning Kuroo’s hand to inspect the burn. He clicks his tongue and frowns at the sight of the angry red and blistered skin, his thumb running soothing circles against Kuroo’s wrist. It’s such an intimate gesture that Kuroo isn’t sure if Sawamura realizes he’s doing it, but it brings the lightest flush to Kuroo’s cheeks and he wills himself to look away.

“What happened?”  
  
“An overly excitable underclassmen and a Bunsen burner.” Kuroo explains with a frown, musing to himself how exactly he’ll make Lev pay for this painful mishap.  
  
Sawamura’s eyes slide up to meet his own, serious and disapproving. “You’ve got to be more careful. This looks like a second degree burn. Even though it was only your hand this time, next time could be even worse.” He tugs on Kuroo’s wrist gently. “Come on.”  
  
Leading them to the tap, Sawamura turns the tap knob to cold and waits a few moments before guiding Kuroo’s hand under the stream of water. As the water hits Kuroo’s injured hand, he lets out a hiss between his teeth.  
  
“Sorry, sorry.” Sawamura mumbles softly, brows furrowed in concern. “Bear with it for a bit.”

Kuroo is sure that the school nurse would have simply told him to hold his hand under the water himself, but Sawamura is there with him the entire time, hands still and secure on Kuroo’s arm, eyes fixed on Kuroo’s injured hand. They stand there like that together in comfortable silence, and as the minutes pass, Kuroo finds himself studying Sawamura’s face with curiosity. They’ve been in the same school for three years, but never in the same class until their third and final. They wouldn’t even count as friends, probably. Maybe acquaintances, saying good morning and good bye to each other only if they happened to cross paths. Sawamura has a lot of friends. He’s always seen with some sort of entourage at his side, and the rumours are endless. About how he’s actually the young master of a rich family because somehow, he manages to buy his entire football team pork buns after practices; and really, what kind of high schooler has that kind of money? About how he’s secretly dating the track and field star of their school, Shimizu Kiyoko. About how he’s rejected tons of confessions from both girls and guys, but is so polite and genuinely apologetic that no one can seem to get too upset at him.  
  
Kuroo knows a lot about him. But he thinks that everyone at this school does.  
  
It’s strange because Sawamura’s not really outstandingly attractive. He’d almost seem a little plain faced, really, at least in comparison to someone like Sugawara, whose delicate features and starlight hair garners him even more romantic admirers than Sawamura. He’s not overly muscular and strong looking like Azumane, either, who has his fair share of (significantly more negative) rumours. What, then, is it about Sawamura that makes people fall in line under him with admiration? Kuroo traces over Sawamura’s features with his eyes, noting the dark lashes that fan out over his cheeks, the gentle slope of his nose, and his lips that naturally fall into an almost half-pout.  
  
Wait, why was he thinking about Sawamura’s lips, again?  
  
Blinking himself out of his daze, Kuroo feels a heat to his cheeks and for the second time today, forces himself to look away.  
  
“Okay,” Sawamura says, and although his voice was gentle, Kuroo heart nearly jumps out of his chest. He’s wrapping Kuroo’s hand in a clean towel and turning off the tap, pointing back at the wooden stool. “Sit there for a little bit. I need to apply some ointment and bandage it.”  
  
Kuroo does as he’s told, silently willing his pounding heart to slow down. He isn’t sure why his heart is beating so quickly, but tells himself that it’s just a side effect of being tended to by the most popular guy in their school. What was this, a romantic comedy? Kuroo snorts, rolling his eyes. Across the infirmary, Sawamura is busying himself looking through the cabinets for the materials that he needs.  
  
As Kuroo scans the room with mild boredom, his eye catches on the homework that Sawamura was assumedly working on before Kuroo entered the room.  
  
“Hey, Sawamura, you’ve got this equation wrong.” Kuroo says, tilting his head to read the neat handwriting on the notebook.  
  
“Really?” Sawamura sets a bandage, a tube of ointment, and some scissors down on the desk before leaning over to look at the page. “Where?”  
  
“Right here.” Kuroo points at the error with his good hand. “The enthalpy of the reaction is equal to the sum of the bond energies for the bonds broken, right? So in this combustion reaction, the enthalpy of ethylene would be -1329 KJ.”  
  
“Oh, you’re right.” Sawamura picks up his pencil and scribbles in a star next to the equation before sitting down in front of Kuroo. “Thanks. Come to think of it, you’re a chemistry guy, aren’t you? I keep hearing about how you’ve won some of those crazy contests for teenaged geniuses, or something.”  
  
Kuroo laughs, extending his hand to Sawamura when he motions for it. “Well, not everyone can be a football star like you, Sawamura, but we’re all good at something.”  
  
Sawamura squeezes some ointment onto what looks like an oversized cotton swab before taking Kuroo’s hand in his own. “Ah, well, football is a team sport. I’m only as good as my team mates are. But those science contests, you’ve got to come up with the material all on your own, don’t you?” He starts applying the ointment to Kuroo’s burn, taking extra care around the blisters before reaching for the bandages. With deft fingers, he proceeds to wrap the bandages around Kuroo’s hand, one hand on Kuroo’s wrist, pressing soft circles into his pulse point with a gentle thumb before saying, softly, “I think you’re pretty amazing, Kuroo.”  
  
“Yes, well,” Kuroo smiles. “I guess I _am_ more than just a pretty face, aren’t I? Thanks for the validation; I’ll be sure to walk with my head held higher.”  
  
Kuroo just barely catches Sawamura rolling his eyes, a huff escaping his lips. “Alright, alright, don’t get too full of yourself, Kuroo-san.”  
  
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Sa’amura-san.” Kuroo grins.  
  
\---

So maybe Kuroo understands why people are so willingly pulled into Sawamura’s orbit. He’s kind and caring and has just the right amount of bite behind his seemingly innocent exterior. And, if Kuroo’s being honest, he quite prefers Sawamura’s type of attractiveness over Sugawara’s celebrity-like shininess. Sawamura is a subtle kind of attractive, one that you might overlook time and time again, until suddenly you’re up close and noticing the flutter of his lashes and the warmth of his laughter and wondering to yourself how you’ve missed all of this in the three years that you’ve known him.  
  
And, well, Kuroo is a chemist, not a poet. So that much speaks for itself.  
  
After that day in the infirmary, Sawamura approaches Kuroo more often, sometimes to ask questions about their homework, a few times to check on Kuroo’s hand. Kuroo won’t say he starts to anticipate their friendly banter, or how he notices that when Kuroo is teasing him, Sawamura subconsciously straightens up to his full height as if attempting to bridge the 11cm difference between the two of them.

Kuroo won’t say that he finds it to be overwhelmingly cute.  
  
It’s late in the evening when the sun is dipping low beyond the horizon and the sky is painted with hues of pink and blazing orange. Kuroo is in the science lab as usual, tinkering away with his usual endeavors when the sharp sound of the classroom door rolling open and then slamming shut again startles him so badly he nearly jumps out of his skin. Turning around, there’s a figure leaning with their forehead resting against the door, back heaving up and down as if he’d been running.  
  
“Sawamura?” Kuroo asks, approaching him with slight hesitation.  
  
Sawamura jumps and whirls around, eyes wide, before he realizes that it’s Kuroo and lets out the breath he had been holding. “Kuroo.” He breathes, looking more exhausted than Kuroo had ever seen him. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were in here.”  
  
“No worries.” Kuroo says, studying Sawamura like he has found himself doing often as of late. “You alright?”  
  
There’s a visible tension in Sawamura’s shoulders as he closes his eyes, lets out a sigh and runs his hand through his hair wearily. “Yea, it’s all good. I just needed a quiet place to escape to for a little while. This was the only classroom that was unlocked. Sorry for disturbing you.”  
  
Kuroo shrugs, dons an easy smile and gestures to the empty classroom. “You’re welcome to stay if you don’t mind me messing around in the background.”  
  
“I wouldn’t want to bother you-”  
  
“You’re not.” Kuroo says, almost too quickly. Sawamura’s eyes are a quiet kind of intense, fixated on Kuroo’s face for a few moments before nodding.  
  
“You really wouldn’t mind? I’m just going to do some homework.”  
  
“Nope. Don’t you know I’m always this nice?”  
  
With a roll of his eyes, Sawamura sets his bag down on an empty desk, just an arm’s length away from the experiments counter. “Thank you, oh mighty Kuroo-san, for being so generous with this public classroom space.”  
  
“Well technically it’s the chemistry club space right now, so you’re right, I am being very generous, aren’t I?”  
  
Sawamura squints at him dubiously. “Chemistry club? Where are the other members?”  
  
Kuroo presses his hand to his chest in mock offense. “Excuse you, the chemistry club is filled with loyal and driven members that are incredibly keen on making great expanses in their scientific knowledge.”  
  
The squinting continues. Sawamura’s deadpan look is so similar to that of an unimpressed parent that Kuroo can’t help but let out a small laugh before admitting, “That, or I may or may not have bribed some members of the go-home club to write their name down on the application so I can meet my 5 student minimum.”  
  
“Ah,” Sawamura says with a nod. He spins a pencil in his hand, watching Kuroo measure out what looks like corn starch. “What are you working on now?”  
  
Kuroo mixes some water into the corn starch until it turns into a goopy mess, then pours the mixture into an empty water bottle. Sliding open the drawer to his right, he pulls out an orange balloon and tugs it over the lip of the water bottle, tips it upside down so that the goop dribbles down and fills the balloon, then quickly pulls the balloon off the water bottle and ties the end into a tight knot. Finally, he takes a sharpie out of his lab coat pocket and draws a squiggly smiley face on the face of the balloon.  
  
“For you.” Kuroo tosses the ball at Sawamura without warning, although unsurprisingly, Sawamura catches it with ease. “Homemade stress ball, packed full of love. Cheer up, okay?”  
  
Looking down at the lopsided smiley face, Sawamura gives it an experimental squeeze. He looks up with a soft smile. “Thanks, Kuroo.”  
  
It’s a smile that Kuroo wouldn’t mind seeing more often from now on, to be honest. But because Kuroo is Kuroo, he can’t help but smile back innocently before quipping, “All that stress will make you go bald early, y’know. It’d be a shame on such a pretty face.”  
  
Sawamura sighs, lips pressing together into a tight line. “And the moment’s over. I’m gonna do my homework now.”  
  
“Ohoho? Moment? Don’t tell me you were falling for me, Sa’amura-san? If you’re wooed so easily, wait until you see some of my fancier tricks.”  
  
“Excuse me, Kuroo-san, I’m trying to work. Would you mind shutting up, please?”  
  
After that day, Kuroo frequently catches Sawamura carrying the stress ball around, easily noticeable because of its bright orange colour. The sight of the ugly drawn on smiley face staring back at him makes something unknown flutter in Kuroo’s chest; he finds himself regretting that he didn’t put more care into making it, had he known that Sawamura was actually going to keep the stupid thing.  
  
Sawamura also starts to stop by the science lab every Wednesday evening. He sits at the same desk every time, always has his homework spread out dutifully in front of him. More often than not, however, the homework goes unfinished even after the 2 hours of allotted club time passes by them.  
  
Kuroo learns a lot about Sawamura over the course of those Wednesday evenings. He learns that he’s being considered for a full-ride athletic scholarship to a top rate university, which is dependent on how the scout rates his performance over the next couple of games. He learns that although he loves football, his real dream is to study sports medicine. He learns that in addition to getting straight As and practicing four days a week, Sawamura also works part time at a physiotherapy clinic, wanting to get a head start in gaining experience in his future field. Over the course of those soft Wednesday evenings, during which their conversations last straight through club hours and into their inevitable walks home, Kuroo learns that he’s never wanted to kiss someone as badly as he does now, when Sawamura’s face is bathed in moonlight on the streets of residential Tokyo.  
  
\---  
  
“Will you be coming to our game next week?” Sawamura asks one night as they’re walking their usual path home. Fall is quickly bleeding into the beginnings of winter, and it feels as if the very air around them bites into their skin as they walk. Kuroo shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket, looks up at darkened sky. The light pollution is too thick in Tokyo to see any stars.  
  
“Dunno, I’ve never gone to any of them before.” Kuroo admits, shrugging his shoulders. Grinning, he leans down to come to eye level with Sawamura and speaks with his usual teasing lilt. “Do you want me to? I’ll consider it if you ask really nicely. Maybe a _please, I want you to come no matter what, Kuroo-san_?”  
  
Sawamura comes to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk, looks up and across that 11 centimetre difference with a soft smile. His eyes are warm, amber brown, a stark contrast against the winter wind that whips through their hair where they stand. When he speaks, his voice is gentle. “Then, please, I want you to come no matter what, Tetsurou.”  
  
The last three syllables are spoken so quietly that it’s almost a whisper. Kuroo freezes, eyes wide, heart pounding in his chest. He wonders how Sawamura would react if he crossed those 11 centimetres in this moment, how Sawamura’s lips would feel pressed against his own, just as he has wanted to do for what feels like an eternity now. He almost does, because although he’s known it for quite some time now, there’s no denying that Sawamura Daichi is a gravitational force that Kuroo is helpless to withstand. But he doesn’t, in the end, because a force of nature is only called such when it is an existence that cannot be held in one place.  
  
And if Kuroo kisses Sawamura now, he’s afraid he won’t ever be willing to let go.  
  
So he takes a step back, puts on an easy smile.  
  
“Well since I’m needed so badly, I guess I can’t say no, can I?”  
  
\---  
  
The night of the game, the temperature is dipping just below freezing, but the bleachers around the football field behind their school is completely filled up regardless. Never having been to one of their games before, Kuroo is surprised to see the sheer amount of school spirit that surrounds them. Everything is decked out in black and orange, which, unfortunately, only succeeds in giving the impression of an overly enthusiastic Halloween party. He arrives with Bokuto by his side, who insists on drawing black and orange stripes on each of Kuroo’s cheeks before they squeeze into a spot on one of the bleachers.  
  
“Kuroo! Bro! You’re going to have such a great time man, our football team is awesome! I always ask you to come with me but you’ve never wanted to until now. It’s so much better with you here!” Bokuto is shaking Kuroo’s arm almost violently, eyes shining with excitement as he hoots and hollers right into Kuroo’s ear. “If they win this match then they get to go to the Christmas Bowl! That’s so freakin’ amazing!”  
  
Their school anthem bursts out from the speakers looming high over the football field and the crowd around them explodes in cheers. Below them, the football team runs single file onto the grass, led by Sawamura’s back, emblazoned with a crisp white #1. Kuroo smiles, thinking back to when he imagined what it would feel like to be on the same field as Sawamura. Watching him as he approaches each individual player, no doubt saying some captainly words of encouragement, Kuroo knows that his thought had been right.  
  
Bokuto has to explain most of the plays and rulings to Kuroo as the game goes on, and truthfully, Kuroo finds himself getting increasingly enthusiastic as he learns. He’s the first on his feet when Sawamura makes a clean receive off of Sugawara’s long pass, landing their first touchdown of the game. He clenches his fists tightly in his lap and lets out a yell alongside the rest of the crowd as he watches two giant defensive ends on the opposing team throw themselves at Sawamura, tackling him to the ground.  
  
All this time, Sawamura had been spending time on Kuroo’s turf in the safe confines of the science lab. Here, on the football field, it’s Sawamura that shines the brightest.  
  
It’s an incredibly close game, as one would imagine a game between the two strongest high school teams of the Kanto region would be.  
  
In the end, Sawamura’s team loses by just 12 points.  
  
As the opposing team cheers, hugging their team mates victoriously, the first and second years are crying bitterly. It’s the last game of Sawamura’s high school career, but he stands with his back straight as ever, a proud smile on his face as he comforts his underclassmen. None of the third years shed a single tear.  
  
The team lines up, single file, to head back to the locker room. As they walk off of the field, Sawamura’s eyes are scanning the bleachers; when they flicker over to meet Kuroo’s, just as they had months ago, this time Sawamura’s face lights up with a wide smile and he holds up a fist towards him, confident and strong. Kuroo smiles back, returns the gesture.  
  
He receives a text shortly after.

  
**(20:12) Meet me in the science lab.**

  
It doesn’t take long for Sawamura to arrive. Kuroo smiles at him as he steps into the classroom, sporting a bruise that’s blooming red-purple just on the edge of his jaw and looking extremely worn out.  
  
“Hey, Sawamura.” Kuroo says heartily, offering a hot can of coffee that he purchased from a vending machine just a few moments ago. Sawamura accepts the can but doesn’t open it, only holds it between his red-tipped fingers in an attempt to warm up.  
  
“You came.” Is all he says, as if he truly didn’t think Kuroo was going to show. As if he didn’t know that Kuroo would most likely do anything he asked him to, at this point.  
  
“Of course I did,” Kuroo shrugs. “After all, a certain someone peered up at me with big ol’ puppy dog eyes and begged me to.”  
  
Rolling his eyes, Sawamura kicks at Kuroo’s leg lightly. “Yea, yea. Sure I did. It’s really so typical of you to come for the one losing game of the season, though. Maybe you’re bad luck.”  
  
“Oh sure, blame it on me.” Kuroo says, raising his brows. He holds his arms wide, beckoning with a grin. “Are you upset? If you’d like, I can comfort you in my arms.”  
  
Sawamura snorts. “Thanks, but no thanks. It’s probably impossible to find any comfort on your bony shoulders.” Ignoring Kuroo’s offended sputters, he cracks open the can of coffee and takes a sip, seemingly lost in thought. A comfortable silence settles in the room as they both cradle their hot beverages in their hands.  
  
“…it was a good game, Sawamura. Thanks for inviting me.” Kuroo finally says, smiling. “I’m glad I went.”  
  
When Sawamura looks up, his smile is just a little melancholy. “Thanks for coming. I really wasn’t sure if you would.”  
  
Kuroo hesitates with his words, worries his bottom lip between his teeth as he considers the consequences of the questions he has in his mind. Sawamura’s gaze is on him, straightforward as always, and Kuroo draws courage from that before speaking. “Why did you ask me to come? And why did you ask to meet me now?“  
  
“Because I wanted to see you.” Sawamura’s answer is short, to the point, and yet Kuroo feels like there are a thousand things left unsaid behind those six words. That’s why, unlike last time, Kuroo takes a single step towards Sawamura, so that they’re standing so close that Kuroo has to look down at him.  
  
“Why did you want to see me?”  
  
Sawamura’s cheeks are flushed, and it may be due to the cold, but then again, it might not be. He lets out a small huff, drawing his brows together ever so slightly in exasperation.  
  
“Figure it out, Kuroo.”  
  
This time, Kuroo closes the 11 centimetre gap in a single moment. Sawamura’s lips are electric where Kuroo meets them, sending shockwaves into Kuroo’s skin, into his very bones, and he barely registers the clatter of an empty coffee can as it hits the floor. He reaches forward to clutch at Sawamura’s hand, a makeshift anchor so that he doesn’t get washed away, and it’s comforting to find that Sawamura’s fingers are trembling just as Kuroo’s are.  
  
When they part, the first thing that Kuroo notices is how the moonlight is filtering through the classroom windows, once again bathing Sawamura’s features in an ethereal glow.  
  
“Aw, if you wanted to kiss me all you had to do was say so, Sawamura.” Kuroo smiles, though he’s sure that the impact of his teasing is dulled by the furious blush that blooms across his face. Sawamura is the same shade of crimson, but a laugh bubbles out of his mouth as he pulls Kuroo down towards him again.  
  
“Just shut up, Kuroo.”  
  
\---  
  
It’s spring full bloom now; exams are finished, university offers have been considered and accepted, and finally, graduation is upon them. Kuroo is valedictorian of their year, as is customary for the student with the highest grade average, and his voice wavers just the tiniest bit as he recites his speech about spreading their wings to take flight into the unknown future.  
  
He finds Sawamura in the crowd, back just as straight as it always is, head held high but ever so slightly misty eyed. When their eyes meet, Sawamura’s smile is there to encourage him to go on. He manages to finish the speech without a single mistake. When the roaring applause drowns out all other sound, it’s Sawamura that Kuroo is looking at.  
  
“Nice job, sir valedictorian.” Sawamura grins as Kuroo approaches him after the ceremony. He tugs lightly on Kuroo’s golden valedictorian sash. “I guess it was a good thing that you beat me out for the spot.”  
  
“All those mistakes in calculus and you thought you had a chance?” Kuroo raises an eyebrow in mock condescension. “Looks like you need a serious reality check.”  
  
“I’ll have to work twice as hard then, to beat you at your own game when we’re in university.”  
  
“I’m still wondering why you made the sports scholarship sound like such a big deal when you had multiple academic scholarships lined up right after it.”  
  
“Ah, I can’t be revealing all my secrets to you, can I?”  
  
With a huff, Kuroo leans down to press a kiss to Sawamura’s lips. The 11 centimetre distance that had once seemed impossible to close is now almost non-existent.  
  
“Hey you two, will you stop making out for two seconds and come take some pictures with us?” Sugawara’s voice echoes across the slowly emptying gymnasium, causing both of them to burst out into laughter.  
  
“Let’s go?” Kuroo asks, holding out his hand.  
  
“Yes.” Sawamura smiles, intertwining their fingers.  
  
And as they walk towards their friends hand-in-hand, one stage of their lives comes to a close, while another is just beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> happy kurodai week, friends! *throws confetti*
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://www.amaanogawa.tumblr.com)


End file.
